Sophisticated personal computers are developing at a rapid rate, and there is an ever-present demand for improved appearance, speed, functionality, and reliability in the newest personal computers. One area that sometimes lags behind in the field is the ability of users to have increased flexibility in upgrading and building their own personal computing systems. While various hardware components, such as monitors, speakers, printers, disk drives, hard drives, memory units, peripheral component interconnect (“PCI”) cards, and the like tend to be easily interchangeable for a home user, other hardware components are not so modular. For example, many traditional home computers are manufactured with a central processing unit (“CPU”) or two that tend to be permanently affixed to a backplane, motherboard or other base printed circuit board (“PCB”) in the computer. Such an arrangement tends to represent the permanent “heart” of the personal computer, with any desire to upgrade the CPU(s) and/or base PCB usually requiring the acquisition of a new computer.
Another area where modularity can be somewhat difficult in personal computers is with respect to PCI card arrays. Many PCI cards have a retention tab integrated along one edge of the card that is used in conjunction with a board-side retention arm to lock the card in place on its respective PCB when installed. Such a retention tab and arm arrangement helps to keep the PCI card installed and in place during vibrations, drops, or other sudden movements of the computing system. In many instances, however, these manually operable retention arms are difficult to access for a user that wants to replace a single PCI card in a tightly arranged array of installed PCI cards. As such, users often must resort to removing one or more adjacent PCI cards in order to access the retention arm mechanism to unlock the PCI card that they actually want to replace. Such a process can be cumbersome and unduly lengthy, and can subject desired components that are installed but must be temporarily removed to unneeded wear and risks.
Another issue that arises as the modularity of a personal computer increases is the ability to measure accurately the temperatures of various internal computer components. For example, many hard drives and other basic items are permanently built into a respective motherboard/CPU arrangement. Under such circumstances, it is fairly easy to build in a permanent thermocouple or other temperature sensing arrangement to monitor the temperature of such permanently affixed hard drives and other items, such that appropriate application of fans and/or other cooling techniques can be applied as needed. A permanently installed temperature sensor can benefit from direct contact with the housing of an operating hard drive or other component, as will be readily appreciated. When such hard drives and other components are modular (i.e., removable and replaceable), however, then the ability to measure accurately the temperature of these devices is complicated.
While many designs for aiding in the modularity of personal computers have generally worked well in the past, there is always a desire to provide new and improved designs or techniques that result in even more modularity options for such personal computers. In particular, various desired improvements can include increased modularity for base CPUs and related components, easier removal and secure installation of PCI cards located within closely spaced arrays, and the ability to accurately measure the temperatures of removable components in personal computers, among other features and enhancements.